Smuggled Food Seizures Continue at Torrid Pace

NUMEROUS OTHER VIOLATIONS ALSO UNCOVERED DURING POST HOLIDAY RUSH EL PASO, TEXAS -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at El Paso area border ports of entry discovered 33 attempts to smuggle prohibited food and agricultural products during the past seven days, resulting in $4,525 in penalties being assessed. Prohibited food and agriculture items seized during the past week included smuggled pork meat, bologna, pork skins, chorizo, lard, sugar cane, avocados, oranges, tangerines, guavas, mangos, hawthorne fruit, apples, pears, yams, quail eggs, bird seed, hibiscus leaves, citrus leaves, lemon grass and live potted plants. Hundreds of similar items were abandoned at the ports of entry after being declared by border crossers. The weeks following the Christmas and New Years holidays are traditionally a period of heavy enforcement as many people who spent the holiday in Mexico attempt to smuggle prohibited goods to their U.S. homes, said David Longoria, U.S. Customs and Border Protection El Paso Port Director. The best way to avoid penalties is familiarize yourself with entry requirements and to declare all items that are being imported. CBP officers have historically discovered numerous immigration related violations in the days after the winter holidays and this year has been no different. CBP officers identified 96 immigration violations at El Paso ports during the week. CBP officers identified 66 intended immigrant cases (people with legitimate entry documents intending to live/work illegally in the U.S.), 15 false claims for U.S. citizenship, 4 cases of people attempting to enter the U.S. with counterfeit entry documents, 4 imposters (people using a legitimate document not assigned to the person), and 6 visa overstay violations. One child smuggling arrest was also made during the week. CBP officers working at ports of entry in West Texas and New Mexico made 10 drug seizures during the last seven days, seizing 1,196 pounds of marijuana and less than an ounce of cocaine. The largest marijuana seizure of the week happened January 4 when CBP officers at the Paso Del Norte port of entry discovered 254 pounds of marijuana hidden in the side panels of a 1979 Ford Econoline Van. The driver of the van, 36-year-old Guadalupe Alvidrez of Juarez, Mexico, was arrested by ICE special agents in connection with the failed smuggling attempt. CBP officers also stopped three people who were attempting to smuggle steroids from Mexico to the U.S. this past week. All three violators were turned over to the El Paso Police Department for local prosecution including a 33-year-old Albuquerque man who was caught with 2,020 units of the anabolic steroid fluoxymesterone on December 30. Area CBP officers apprehended 11 fugitives during the last seven days including a man being sought by Texas authorities after walking away from a Department of Corrections halfway house in Horizon City. At approximately 5:15 a.m., 34-year-old Timothy Adam Binder arrived at the port and asked a CBP supervisor if he could direct him towards Mexico. The CBP officer became suspicious and queried the mans name and learned that he had been entered into the NCIC wanted person database just two hours earlier. Binder was taken into custody and turned over to the El Paso Police Department. A total of 278 wanted people have been apprehended by area CBP officers since October 1, 2005, the beginning of the fiscal year. Last year area CBP officers apprehend in excess of 1,230 wanted people while performing inspections at area ports of entry. A total of three Stanton Street Dedicated Commuter Lane (DCL) users had their privileges revoked this past week for violating the terms of the trusted traveler program. One DCL user had his privileges suspended for 14 days after arriving at the DCL crossing without his authorized port pass. Two other DCL users had their privileges suspended for 180 days each for attempting to transport luggage belonging to someone else through the lane. Anti-terrorism remains the primary mission of CBP. The intensive inspection process associated with the anti-terror mission continues to yield impressive enforcement numbers in all categories.